Ecology project help

Soldato
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23 May 2006
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Hi, Is there anyone here who is doing biology or a related subject. I went on a field course a fortnight ago and we had to do a project on limpets haha, I need to in my project include details of the ecology and physiology of why the limpets got bigger between the middle and lower shores. I'm really confused as to what to write and how to differentiate between ecological factors and physiological.

cheers
 
Not trying to be funny but is your biology teacher approachable. Ask him/her to give you some advice. When i was at school, most teachers were more than happy to give guidance when we were unsure of something.
 
Limpet size varies according to the exposure of the coastline. Limpets on un-sheltered coastlines are smaller to present a smaller surface to the force of the waves. Those on sheltered shores are larger, as there is less of an issue with the force of the waves breaking on the rocks.

So the ecological factors are things like the exposure to the force of the waves, the tide height, time under water etc. The physiological factors are the limpets' response - size, shape, etc.

// EDIT // loads on google ... http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=limpet+size+wave&btnG=Search
 
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Thanks! from my T and Z tests it shows that there is a statistically significant difference in limpet width between the upper and lower shores of an exposed rocky shore.
I found they got wider on the lower shore than upper shore.
 
Ah OK. Just thought i'd mention it. Even for coursework our teachers were very happy to steer us in the right direction.

This reminds me of my A-Level biology field trip but we could choose our own experiment. I decided to collect seaweed at different distances from the shore then hung them to dry, weighing them every hour to prove that the seaweed further from the shore retained water better than that closer. It wasn't the best experient idea as two of us were having to get up every 2 hours to weigh the damn stuff.

Good luck with your project!
 
That isn't what published data would suggest.

This may be for a number of reasons, which will be interesting to discuss and hence you'll be fine mark-wise. You can say what would be expected and then what you found and that it's probably a factor of not having a large enough sample size or that the shore you sampled is abnormally sheltered, making the gradient down the beach undetectable and open to statistical error.
 
on the marking sheet. for the analysis it says to explain the results in full relating to specific aspects of the data collected. what does this mean?

collisster
 
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